AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF THE RIVER LEA. 191
riotously thrown down. In our present document the Plaintiffs are
concerned to maintain, as against the Defendants (and neither the
one nor the other is anywhere named), that the great river running
close to the town of Waltham is the ancient, navigable river Lea,
one of the greatest of the realm. And they, thereupon, cite a
Commission of 1355, which states that the river runs from Ware to
Waltham Holy Cross ; and that another stream, which the de-
fendants allege to be the ancient river, was then but a ditch running
to Cheshunt Mill, 16 feet wide, and represented by an Essex jury
to be a hurt to the river Lea itself, inasmuch as it diminished the
water supply in it. The mouth of the mill-dam was also represented
by a Herts jury as 16 feet wider than it used to be. And this
double presentment, by two counties, warrants the conclusion that
the River Lea itself, and not the mill-stream, divides them. In 1482
the Abbot of Waltham is said to have a 16-foot way out of the
river where he should have a 4-foot way only, and a 16-foot lock
where he should have one of 18 feet, "for which cause it must be
broken up, for it is great jeopardy to all manner of barges and
boats upon the water there." The High Bridge, also, was reported
to be a hindrance, owing to its lowness ; in consequence of which
passengers had to pay for having it drawn up, and there was like to
"grow a duty and a charge" to them, "whereas there oweth
no such to be."
The defendants were concerned to make out that Smalleybridge,
or Smallingbridge, elsewhere called Small Leigh Bridge, was what
was meant by the High Bridge, which, in spite of its name, was the
lower of the two ; and that Cheshunt Mill Stream was the real
ancient river Lea, and the boundary between the two counties. The
contention seems, so far as one can gather, to have been a very ill-
founded one, for the plaintiffs are able to allege that Smalleybridge
was always so called and that the stream under it was but a shallow
narrow ditch, obstructed by the mill-dam in such a way that not
even a little vessel could pass that way.
Again in 1575 another Commission reported that the river ran
from Ware to Waltham ; from Waltham to Temple Bridge ; from
Temple Bridge to Bullyfant ; thence to Clobbes Hill, the Old Ford,
Bow Bridge, the Lock, Ley Mouth, and so to the Thames. We
also learn that the lord of Theobalds paid 26s. 8d. to the lord of
Perryors for a course of water going through his grounds from the
Ley to Cheshunt Mill, till both manors came to my Lord Treasurer ;